What is Elevate TI? Treasure Island residents say: “It’s dead”

“Elevate TI” was a catchphrase in Treasure Island, even after the Aug. 20 vote that killed it. The Town of Treasure Island has launched a Terrain Modification Program, colloquially known as Elevate TI, to “preserve the integrity and quality of life” in the community, according to the project page on mytreasureisland.org.

Elevate TI would slowly raise the city’s elevation by several feet. It would also allow the use of fill under buildings and roads throughout the city. Fill is usually a mixture of soil, sand, and rock that adds land. Treasure Island’s ordinance prohibits the use of fill, but the city could change that.

“We are no longer using Elevate TI as a name. The program, as revised, will allow for the voluntary use of fill material subject to certain technical requirements,” said Stacy Boyles, deputy city manager and director of public works. Boyles said people have been spreading false information about Elevate TI, leading to a misunderstanding of what the project would have entailed.

“It seemed to be a pretty significant overreach of authority on the part of the City of Treasure Island,” said Mark Hohe, a Treasure Island resident and a year-old member of Citizens’ Voice of Treasure Island (CVTI).

What is Citizens’ Voice of Treasure Island?

CVTI, a resident-led organization, promotes greater involvement in city policy and advocacy for Treasure Island’s citizens. According to Hohe, CVTI includes civil engineers, contractors and developers. He believes this gives the group valuable insight into issues like Elevate TI.

“We don’t want to be watchdogs or be against everything. We really want to work with the city,” Hohe said.

Hohe and Andrew Vasey, who work in airport infrastructure, are part of CVTI. They said they have seen a lot of “collective support” for Elevate TI. Neither of them knows anyone who is against using fill to combat rising sea levels. They say many citizens are wary of any form of mandate because the cost to individual citizens is too high.

What is a sunny day flood?

According to an explanatory video on the website, when it rains, stormwater runs into Boca Ciega Bay. This system works fine at low tide, but at high tide, low-lying areas can be flooded, blocking the drainage system.

Sunny day flooding is a result of rising sea levels. Low-lying areas are affected during high tides. Sunny day flooding could become a major problem in the next 70 years. It could flood larger areas of land, including roads. Over the past 20 years, sea levels have risen by about 15 centimeters. Scientists estimate that by 2100, they will rise by almost 1.1 meters.

Terrain modification and filling

“If we wait to request site adjustments, it will be too late and too costly to avoid these impacts,” the city’s Elevate TI fact sheet states.

According to the city’s website, Elevate TI would only require fill for new construction or “significant improvements” to existing buildings. However, many residents expressed concerns about the idea of ​​such a requirement.

According to Vasey, the city has banned the use of embankments in the past. The reasoning? Putting embankments in flood plains would push floodwaters up, increasing the area flooded.

“Now you have to ask yourself, ‘What kind of revelation is this to the city’s building inspectors that it’s suddenly OK to bring in fill?'” he said.

“The requested changes eliminate the need to place fill during the construction of a building. This will result in fewer buildings being raised, limiting the city’s capacity to raise streets in the future,” Boyles said.

Thumbs down for Elevate TI

After a lengthy board meeting on August 20, during which Treasure Island residents waited until 10:30 p.m. to discuss the project, three out of five members opposed Elevate TI. These members said residents should not be required to make changes.

“This Elevate TI was over-engineered; the Terrain Modification Manual was 147 pages long. And even then, it left so many gaps in interpretation that had to be filled on a project-by-project basis,” Hohe said.

Regarding the Aug. 20 BOC meeting, Hohe said he knows that running a city involves many moving parts. He doesn’t believe the BOC intentionally delayed public comments, but he hopes city leaders expect more transparency and collaboration in the future.

“The problem with Elevate TI was that there were regulations that created a lot of money, and then there were regulations that were intentionally designed to force people out of their homes sooner,” Vasey said. He added that with Elevate TI, citizens were left with only two options: pay or move away.

Costs for the future

The project would also raise the roads several feet. According to the project proposal, roads need to be fully rehabilitated about every 30 years, meaning no one can use fill until it’s time to rebuild.

“There was no funding and the original estimate was that this work would cost about $10 million per mile. We have 24 miles of city streets,” Hohe said.

Vasey said he fears taxes would have to be raised by 500 percent to finance the project.

“The cost of raising the roads has been presented by some as the total cost of rebuilding and raising the roads,” Boyles said. “… when in fact we should only be considering the differential cost of raising the roads, since rebuilding will ultimately happen anyway.”

On July 30, the city held a special City Commission workshop to further discuss costs. According to the city’s presentation, the average cost to rebuild a road is about $7.5 million per mile. Terrain adjustments can cost an additional $1.125 million to $3 million, or 15 to 40 percent of the cost of reconstruction without terrain adjustments.

“There would need to be extensive pre-planning for road raising projects, where money could either be saved up front or grants/subsidies could be applied for,” Boyles said. “It’s about people being able to get to their homes in the future on daily tides.”

“A vanity project”

Vasey and Hohe said they viewed Elevate TI as a “prestige project” and were concerned that the mayor wanted Treasure Island to be the first city to address sea level rise without considering its citizens.

“Elevate TI, in my opinion, was really something of a prestige project for the city to find a way to take a kind of leadership role in dealing with sea level rise,” Hohe said.

He also said that he believes the city has placed too much emphasis on this program. He said the city should instead focus on simpler projects that he believes will have a greater impact on citizens.

“If you want to talk about coastal flooding, it affects thousands of miles of U.S. coastline. Why should we think that one city can solve the problem on its own without state or federal help? This is a federal problem,” Hohe said.

Vasey said the mayor should focus more on acting as a “thought leader” among other mayors, senators and congressmen to make land adjustment a federally funded project. Vasey pointed to the construction of the Eisenhower Interstate System in the 1950s and said every coastal city faces the impacts of rising sea levels. He doesn’t believe Treasure Island should have to fight it alone.

“In October, city staff will ask the City Commission to determine the path forward for amending the related ordinances and technical manual,” Boyles said. “The commission’s direction will determine how long the revision will take, but we think April 2025 will likely be the earliest possible date for adoption to meet public meeting requirements,” Boyles said.

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